Few films portray a modern civil war as eerily accurate as A24’s 2024 release of Civil War, directed and written by Alex Garland (A24, 2024). In April of this year, Civil War premiered to discuss the prevalence of violence and political combat in a dystopian set film as a reflection of societal fears. Garland directs a story of an alternate near-future America torn apart by civil war. The plot follows a group of war journalists as they go to Washington D.C where rebel factions attempt to seize the city and assassinate the president. There are countless moments of action throughout the film as the team joins alongside intense action-packed gun fights documenting the war. The screenshot chosen to represent a specific moment of violence is from the “What kind of American are you?” scene midway through the movie. The seven-minute-long scene is emotionally charged and explores violence and ideological divide through shock and slower paced tense action.
The screenshot that connects to the chosen scene encapsulates the central theme of the violence, which is not just physical but also ideological. There are six figures in the frame, one kneeling and the rest on their feet. Two men in the image are holding guns showing how there’s an imbalance of power. In regards to the mise en scene, the general art direction through not just this scene but the film entirely is captured through natural lighting, muted colour, consistent costumes of military wear, and unchanged wardrobe for the main characters to represent the efficiency of their journey through light packing. In this scene specifically, the lower angle of the camera highlights the authority of the armed men as well as a peaking shot of the pit of bodies. The minimal space between the living and the dead amid the grim murders of two innocent people in the scene makes a huge impact. This ecology shows the audience the harsh consequences of possible violence from the antagonists. The dirt and bodies are reminders of what might happen. Throughout this sequence, the POV of the camera stays fairly objective. The viewer is kept at a distance from the characters, allowing them to take in the entirety of the scene without fully identifying with one character. As the cuts become quicker and more specific, the edits become more noticeable, particularly as the characters are shown reacting to the realization of their impending fate. This technique makes the audience more aware of the construction of the film, creating a heightened sense of tension. 16 cuts are noticeable in the minute where the screenshot takes place, they jump between speaking or crying characters. The cuts are consistently seamless without acknowledging the camera as well as keeping a pretty consistent medium to long shot distance at eye level besides the shot from inside the pit looking up and the final cuts of the scene. Unmoving and going between the characters speaking in a back and forth, the topic of where in America they are from is the central issue of the moment. This is all after a man is shot in the head without hesitation by a despotic military officer. Editor Jake Roberts most likely placed the shots in a contradictorily calm pace after an abrupt and unnecessary act of violence. This drives home the movie’s ideas that ideological differences become violent and unwaveringly justified by an aggressors in times of high political tension and war.
Distributor A24 studios released Civil War in April of 2024 and made $126,185,957 dollars worldwide. Domestic audiences contributed 54% of the grosses with $68,603,430 (Box Office Mojo, 2024). The tensions of modern America made Civil War a uniquely impactful film for both domestic and international audiences. Diminishing social trust because of political differences is most likely the source of a modern civil war and what sparked the violence in this shot (Lee, 2022). Trust in others who share a society is what holds together participation and cooperation in civilization. America, being heavily diversified by things like race, ethnicity, social class and political views needs social trust to function (Lee, 2022). The scene chosen creates a conversation of the real world of the noticeable decline of social trust. Hate crimes, notable bigotry and rights being stripped is seen in today’s America especially since the polarization sparks from Donald Trump’s cult-like impact even as early as the November 2016 election (Edwards and Rushin 2018). Not that hate is new, but the rapid decline of a modern world powerhouse is shocking. The kind of violence seen in the film correlates directly from real world Americans looking for power and using violent provocation to justify it. Reactions to this violence and scenes where blue blooded Americans are outwardly cruel to fellow citizens make some uncomfortable and angry. Reviewing the film in a negative way, those who disliked it harped on the fact that without full context of why the movie war started that the messages and plot within should be criticized. Part of the appeal to Civil War is exactly that though. An unclear anger created the environment we are thrown into through this group of war journalists and the unclear and chaotic lack of knowledge drives home fear. If this was real most Americans would be at the mercy of radical or tyrannical group violence without full context, much like viewers of the film.
Bibliography:
A24. 2024. Civil War. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://a24films.com/films/civil-war.
Box Office Mojo. Civil War. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl172392449/.
Edwards, Griffin Sims, and Stephen Rushin. “The Effect of President Trump’s Election on Hate Crimes.” Last revised January 31, 2019. University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Marketing, Industrial Distribution & Economics. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3102652.
Lee, Amber Hye-Yon. 2022. “Social Trust in Polarized Times: How Perceptions of Political Polarization Affect Americans’ Trust in Each Other.” Political Behavior 44 (3): 1533–54. doi:10.1007/s11109-022-09787-1.
Edgardo Sanchez
Choosing Civil War by A24 is such a creative choice for this assignment! This film has some action and violence but mostly focuses on War Journalism so it is a very cool movie choice.
Not entirely sure but I think it would have been more effective if there was a slightly more in-depth review of the film. It’s not bad, as you describe the plot of the film well. But would have been better if it was a summary of the events of the main story that occurred that leads to the “What type of American are you?” scene.
The point of the violence in the scene is very accurate and your analysis shows a good understanding of it. Using the camera points of view, counting frames, acting and colouring in the scene. You briefly touched on this point but I think it would have added a bit more of an impact to your analysis if you continued the scene in its entirety. You did mention one of the two persons getting shot but didn’t mention that the other character was one of the main ones. By shooting the secondary character it helped to increase the stakes, as previous to this encounter our main characters haven’t received any damage. I just think that by describing this it would have added slightly more impact and would have described more the action that occurred. But honestly, I think overall it is a pretty good analysis.